Teachers in summer walkout threat

Teachers are demanding the right to walk out of classrooms if the temperature exceeds 27C, claiming that staff are risking 'dizziness, fainting, or even heat cramps' during the summer term.

Members of the National Union of Teachers say the World Health Organisation recommends 24C as a maximum for comfortable working and regards anything above 26C 'as definitely unacceptable'. If the government does not set a legal limit to classroom temperatures, teachers could refuse to work.

The temperature level is one of a host of demands for changes in working conditions to be voted on at the NUT annual conference which opens on Friday. Teachers will argue that schools can get so hot there is a 'deleterious effect on the ability of teachers and pupils to concentrate'. They say that there is already an 18C lower limit to classroom temperatures. In England, regulations require that new schools should be built so that temperatures do not exceed 28C for more than 120 hours during the school year, but existing schools are exempt. 'Schools are not suited to the warmer summers we have been enjoying,' said NUT general secretary Steve Sinnott. 'Schools do not have air-conditioning. Those built more recently have a great deal of glass which can push the temperature up quite considerably.'

The motion is being put forward by Tim Lucas, a chemistry teacher and NUT branch secretary in East Sussex, who said schools were built to a tight budget with 'no money for extras'. He added: 'We are saying a little more thought needs to be taken at the design stages, taking measures to increase the air flow and, in some circumstances, bringing in air-conditioning.'

But Margaret Morrissey, of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, said that cooling down was not always best for children: 'It is hard to work in a very warm room, but on the other hand children won't learn if they are thinking about how cold they are. We should say to teachers, before you turn down the temperature put on a thin T-shirt and summer skirt because children are not moving at the same rate as you.' However, she agreed that many classrooms could feel like 'greenhouses in the summer and igloos in the winter'.

A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said schools were included in the Workplace Regulations 1992, which state that 'the temperature in all workplaces inside buildings shall be reasonable'. Other regulations require that ventilation must ensure three litres of fresh air per second for each person. 'Comfortable working conditions are vital to effective teaching and learning and we expect schools to use their discretion in applying all relevant regulations,' he added.

Teachers will also use the conference to argue that the union should establish a political fund that would allow them to organise against far-right parties such as the British National Party (BNP). At present the union is not allowed to campaign against political parties.

'All we can say at the moment is vote for education,' said Sue McMahon, from Calderdale, west Yorkshire, who is proposing the motion. 'This is to give us a voice against a political party like the BNP. Recently there was a by-election in Calderdale and the BNP just missed getting in by 70 votes.'

McMahon said she did not want the NUT to campaign against mainstream parties, but far-right ones which were 'seeking to damage the comprehensive system'. The BNP made election manifesto promises to 'prohibit all curricular pandering to the cultures of immigrants' and to 'fight tooth and nail against the looming catastrophe of forced integration within secondary schools'.

Sinnott said there had been attempts by the BNP to recruit teenagers and rumours of pupils promoting the party in school. 'The BNP is anathema to the NUT. Its policies to divide and rule are unacceptable.'

Another motion to the conference calls for false allegations against teachers to be removed from their records.